Passaconaway - 19/Jun/98
The original idea behind this hike was to take Friday off and get a
quiet day in the woods, bagging two 4000'ers and enjoying the solitude.
Brenda had done the Passaconaway-Whiteface loop but didn't go the extra
half mile to get Passaconaway, Allison hadn't done either. We got a
fairly late start from Nashua, arriving after 10:00 at the trailhead.
The Ferncroft parking area is a bit off the
beaten path, but a nice place to start a hike. We had the place all
to ourselves.
After a nice walk up the road, past the house, and through the gate,
we entered the woods on the Dicey's Mill trail. One thing that was
obvious was the severe tree damage from the
ice storm of the previous winter. It had
been raining the past several days, and stream
crossings were high. The trail was muddy in a lot of places and
by halfway we were pretty covered in mud. Eventually we made it up
to the trail junction with the Rollins trail and then to
Camp Rich. The summit is a long
.5 miles from here, and it had started to drizzle on and off.
It took a bit longer than I'd remembered to make it to the top. The
trail is steep in places, requiring a few scrambles. Eventually we
hit the wooded summit and then retired to
the ledges for lunch. We had a quick snack before the rain started
and we beat a hasty retreat. By the time we hit Camp Rich it was
pouring and we were getting cold and hungry, so we set up on a log
and had a standing lunch. Doesn't it look
like fun. Instead of heading for Mt Whiteface, we decided to just
head on down and call it a day. Another rainy 4000'er.
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